The main issue I have with skill curves is when they're not really curves. Many games start out harder than they end, Bioshock is a good example of this.
Sudden difficulty spikes can be a pain though, but most of the time you can adapt and overcome.
Totally agree about game difficulty thing and people wanting a game made easier despite when it's on a harder mode. I also hate the opposite. Sometimes on a regular setting, people complain of a game being made too easy (like it's catering to certain people or something) and the gameplay should be made harder. Like, I get there needs to be a balance, but that's usually why harder modes are made, for those who want more of a challenge. Don't just try to get rid of the 'not-as-hard' version just because it's easy for you.
Unrelated, I just found out Yousei Teikoku is coming back to the US and that's why their newest album is available on iTunes. I'm glad more of their music is available, but I'm so sad I can't go to Texas for their convention appearance!
Hahaha, that's true I got to the part of the game where it seems like everything you've done in the game seems pointless (after the Alternis Dim fight on Grandship), so it just seems like there's suddenly a crap ton to do and all I wanted to do was move on with the story...
The best example I can think of cheap difficulty is from the recent added difficulty in the remaster of the Uncharted games for PS4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdQ1Rad2m24
That is a great example of cheap/unfair difficulty. The player has no control seeing how the cutscene forces you to get shot down the very moment you try to take control back from what it looks like in that Uncharted video.
I also see how luck in some cases can make the higher difficulties frustrating seeing how the enemy would naturally get "luckier" on higher difficulties. Though the luck element in a game (with critical hits being an example of luck) seems like an unfair element to some players, it seems that almost all games incorporate an element of luck in someway shape or form. As long as the Player overall has enough control over their actions (The player isn't struggling with their controls, they are able to analyze enemy patterns, and a story cutscene doesn't put the player in a bad position) (It's even worse if the player can actually be damaged during a cutscene), I see most elements the higher difficulties throw at the player fair game with things like enemies that have more HP and Attack than before, and enemies gaining new patterns. While luck is an okay element to have, it shouldn't have a super huge impact on the player (such as an enemy throwing an unavoidable 100% Kill attack), and only be something subtle that can give a small advantage to the player, or a small disadvantage the player has to work around.
I also personally think that games that make you lose all your items or go down a "Level" in an RPG-like game when you die are not fun and are made up of Fake Difficulty as well. With Minecraft being a great example of it seeing how accidentally falling into Lava and you lose that newly crafted Diamond Pickaxe and other Diamonds you've mined. It pretty much caused me to quit playing Survival Mode on Minecraft forever. Others may see it differently, but it seems like a very punishing mechanic to lose your hard earned items.
The reverse is also annoying like you said Spirica Rose. If a game doesn't have different difficulty settings I understand why people would complain, but if they want a challenging game and they choose to play the game's "easy mode" they shouldn't complain anymore. And it is there for players who aren't as skilled, or just want to play the game in a relaxing way.
Hahaha, that's true I got to the part of the game where it seems like everything you've done in the game seems pointless (after the Alternis Dim fight on Grandship), so it just seems like there's suddenly a crap ton to do and all I wanted to do was move on with the story...
I am so tired of waking up in pain. I also kept waking up last night about every two hours because of a nightmare. It was of one of my greatest fears, our house was on fire. Luckily it only reached the downstairs and not my room, like my other nightmare about a fire. But still. And then when I fell back asleep it continued! Ugh. I have not had one of those dreams in a long time. I was afraid to fall back asleep again. And I'm kind of groggy/tired since in the dream I was so anxious/scared the whole time, I must have been breathing heavily in my sleep. The one time I woke up sweating. I hate that. Still a little weirded out by it. Just like I still can't listen to Kimi no Gin because I associate it with the nightmare. And I like that song too.
Oh man, those nightmares sound awful Liana. I guess it's times like this that I'm thankful that I rarely ever remember my dreams. I'm sure I'm missing out on remembering some wonderful ones as well as horrible ones, but it's probably a fair tradeoff.
I had some absolute shit of a woman in my store today throwing racial abuse at another woman for no legitimate reason. She was shouting and telling her to get out of our country because she wasn't 'purebred British' and other abusive things. We eventually had to kick her out as she was starting to get physically violent. Apparently she's come in before and thrown abuse around whilst being drunk, so it's not the first time it's happened. I wasn't directly involved with it, but it still wasn't a nice experience.
That is a great example of cheap/unfair difficulty. The player has no control seeing how the cutscene forces you to get shot down the very moment you try to take control back from what it looks like in that Uncharted video.
I also see how luck in some cases can make the higher difficulties frustrating seeing how the enemy would naturally get "luckier" on higher difficulties. Though the luck element in a game (with critical hits being an example of luck) seems like an unfair element to some players, it seems that almost all games incorporate an element of luck in someway shape or form. As long as the Player overall has enough control over their actions (The player isn't struggling with their controls, they are able to analyze enemy patterns, and a story cutscene doesn't put the player in a bad position) (It's even worse if the player can actually be damaged during a cutscene), I see most elements the higher difficulties throw at the player fair game with things like enemies that have more HP and Attack than before, and enemies gaining new patterns. While luck is an okay element to have, it shouldn't have a super huge impact on the player (such as an enemy throwing an unavoidable 100% Kill attack), and only be something subtle that can give a small advantage to the player, or a small disadvantage the player has to work around.
I also personally think that games that make you lose all your items or go down a "Level" in an RPG-like game when you die are not fun and are made up of Fake Difficulty as well. With Minecraft being a great example of it seeing how accidentally falling into Lava and you lose that newly crafted Diamond Pickaxe and other Diamonds you've mined. It pretty much caused me to quit playing Survival Mode on Minecraft forever. Others may see it differently, but it seems like a very punishing mechanic to lose your hard earned items.
The reverse is also annoying like you said Spirica Rose. If a game doesn't have different difficulty settings I understand why people would complain, but if they want a challenging game and they choose to play the game's "easy mode" they shouldn't complain anymore. And it is there for players who aren't as skilled, or just want to play the game in a relaxing way.
I guess luck mechanics could come across as cheap, but some games get around that by simply stating that higher difficulty settings increase the enemies' luck stats and the like. Some games (mostly RPGs) tend to have luck stats anyway, so it at least seems more fair if there's a visible boost.
I'm in agreement that triggering a cutscene shouldn't be dangerous to your life. Many games get around this by not allowing them to activate without everything being dead anyway or if they lead into a fight, starting you off in some form of cover or giving some warning that some enemies will be incoming shortly after you regain control. In some cases though, it just throws you into the middle of a battle and it's entirely possible to die without any chance to really react, leaving it down to pure RNG as to whether the enemies can kill you before you reach something a little safer.
I'm OK with games that have loss of equipment or characters if it's an optional mechanic or stated outright as part of the difficulty. I'm a fan of a lot of games that include permadeath mechanics for example, things like Dungeons of Dredmor or Binding of Isaac come to mind, plus Ironman mode on XCOM for example. Those are the kinds of games that you go into knowing well that it's part of the mechanics though.
My favourite kinds of difficulty levels are the ones that actually change attack patterns or the structure of fights. Older FPS games like DOOM or Quake are good at this at it's most basic form, higher difficulties add in more enemies into certain rooms and/or add tougher enemies than would appear there on lower difficulties. When properly balanced, it allows people of different skill levels to complete the same game but with different experiences, if it's implemented well it will always feel balanced and fair regardless of which setting the player is on. As for actual attack patterns, Touhou and other bullet hell shooters come to mind, as many bosses and enemy groups will have similar bullet patterns but with more complex layouts on higher difficulties. You can tell that it's the same attack, but harder difficulties change the intrinsic structure and flow of the projectiles, making it more challenging. Of course, such games are often regarded at the high end of the skill spectrum even on the easiest setting, I can usually just about beat normal on such games, but even then some of them break me entirely. The 11th and 12th Touhou games are exceptionally hard for the franchise and I still can't beat them on normal even, and easy is tough.
I can't think of any examples right now, but I'm sure I've seen RPGs that have enemies and bosses that only appear on harder settings and the ones that do appear in any skill level have attacks that are exclusive to harder difficulties as well. It seems very rare though, presumably because it not only involves creating balanced difficulty settings across the board, but animating and coding whole new patterns that would only be experienced by those who were playing on the harder difficulties. I suspect that many players who are less passionate or skilled at videogames would much prefer to enjoy the story by playing on easy or normal, rather than hard, so that makes it less likely that a developer would be willing to implement such elements unless they were creating a game specifically targetted at a high skill level audience. Demon's Souls' world tendency is one example of this I can think of, where the game world and certain elements of the environment, plus enemy placement and types change when the world is at either end of the spectrum. New enemy variants, or in rare cases entirely new enemies with new models and everything that comes with it appearing on further New Game settings is something else that I quite like, that's another thing the Souls games do quite well.
Breaking away from the game difficulty discussion,
Today has been the most insane day I've ever experienced, funnily enough It's one of the shortest days in the school year too.
Today in science I asked my friend when we we're going to film a YouTube video for her channel (something because of various commitments and colds we haven't had time to do) Then another friend of ours chimes in (Lets call her E)
"I thought she told you not to bring up Sunday"
She just kind of storms off.
It's important to note E absolutely dislikes me, even more-so now. I offended her completely by accident, it was a pretty deep cut (fandom related things.) Honestly I don't even remember what I said, which just makes her hatred more unbearable. It's been almost 4 moths since it happened but it feels like a full year. I've apologised, kissed ass for the past 2 months back at school but she still won't let up.
Back to reality, I have no idea what E meant by that, my offending her was clear though, Honestly I was just confused since I didn't even know how I did it (Like most things when it comes to E.)
After we set things up for our science practical the friend I was planning to make a video with (D) comes up to me:
"I don't think you should bring up Sunday around E, you know she hates you anyway and I mean I'm kind of like her best friend and since you have plans to come over to my house and she doesn't she's jealous."
At this point I'm fully confused. E can make plans to go to D's house. Hell E was there when D was shooting a video but declined to be in it. She can do that whenever she wants, why are my plans making E jealous when I just want to be organised and wake up on time when we actually do shoot the video? I mean no harm at all and have no intent to make her jelous.
At this point D is still sitting next to me, I tell her E is being silly, that E can make her own plans. That I don't understand why she's jealous. So D moves over to E on the other side of the room, mostly to keep their friendship together because I remember D saying she was skating on thin ice with E like I am.
Things get worse. I end up telling a friend of ours in the elevator (we're a friendship group of 9) I end up yelling, I scared her a little. I'm just done with E's sensitivity, sometimes I don't even know how I offend E half the time.
(We tried working it out in the holidays, E told me I should shut my face, sometimes I should. I agreed, apologised, kissed ass. I was too chicken to tell E what I thought of her, it would've made things worse. Then I must've said something which again I can't remember, E ended up storming off.)
At lunch with a clearer head after accidentally yelling, I talked with a different friend. (C) I end up liking this friend the more I talk to her, C is really funny and cool. She ended up talking about how lots of people actually trust her with emotional baggage such as this, but she kind of just let's it go and explode. (C Then proceeded to air swing a baseball bat at the "baggage" symbolised as a crumpled piece of paper which travels really far and explodes as it hits the ground.) D asked C what we were talking about C told the truth which was when D told C the Popin' Cookin' video, the one we planned to film was cancelled (Which I hypothesis is for the benefit of E)
I walked to the buss with D when D tells me I made a friend feel uncomfortable at the Deadpool screening we saw. again, I don't remember how I did it, I never did it intentionally but I feel like shit. Then I just keep half-jokingly asking D to just bury me 6 feet under (something that got no response from D, no "stop being an idiot" nothing) because whatever I seem to do I fuck up. I breathe, I fuck shit up. I talk, I fuck shit up. I exist, I fuck shit up.
I haven't had a friendship group ever, I haven't had an actual friend in 7 years. And that friend I did have doesn't even care about me anymore.
( I ended up finding her Instagram account, I had been waiting for the day I could talk to her for 7 years. She sees what I DM her, after 4 months, but she doesn't say anything back. Sadly it makes sense, She got on the popular road when she went to Melbourne, I sunk to the friendless, complete isolation for 3 years depths of the popularity hierarchy that is my school.)
I feel like a piece of crap. I think I'm going to have to start isolating myself from them, the only friendship group I've ever known. It'll be easy, I've already started. You just slowly move away. Stop hanging out at recess. Stop hanging out at lunch. Don't sit near them in class. Don't be in their group for group assignments. Only say hi down the hall. Block their Skype, Instagram, iMessage. Complete isolation. At first it stings, then you get over it. I was shoved in that pool long ago, it'll be easy. It's probably the only way now.
Now I'm going to eat everything chocolate or of an ice-cream consistency in the house, shoot a Popin' Cookin' video if I have time and watch Game Grumps.
Sorry to hear about that Liana. Having your house on fire is indeed one of the worst nightmares. It is rough having Nightmares a lot and still remembering them. It is quite likely my biggest fear which has extended to an overall fear of fire in general.
Some of the Nightmares I've had include having an eye appear in my belly button, swarms of bugs/ants/spiders in my house, and small flying bugs eating my car with me inside it.
It was also fun to read your analysis on acceptable types of game difficulty @Seasonreaper I enjoy analyzing what makes games good to play taking into account all of their elements including Difficulty, Gameplay, Story and other things.
That sounds rough @LacrimosaRaven . Friendships are difficult to deal with overall it seems like and that sounds like a very eventful day. I've always found it difficult to be part of a Group of Friends, usually just having 1 or 2 good friends, and even then it can still be difficult to trust them completely given the amount of drama and backstabbing that can happen between friends.
My main complaint now is how it seems impossible to not find absolute assholes of drivers that always have to be centimeters behind you on a 30-50 MPH Road never giving you enough space on the road to feel relaxed and have to worry that they will crash into you because they are too close. Some will also honk at you if you don't turn on Red while there is a massive wave of vehicles coming through. It is especially bad when you are going straight and not turning right and the driver behind still honks at you for not turning on Red (When your signal wasn't even on to indicate you were turning). Overall drivers like that remind me of the worst in Humankind.
@LacrimosaRaven Sorry to hear that. Don't worry too much about them though. Some people can feel offended when they really shouldn't, and at that point you just let them be and keep your distance. It might also be that you're just incompatible, nothing wrong with that, but you shouldn't try too much to make it work out. You try to think about what you might have said to offend the other person, and even discuss it with others, and that's good. However, if you really find nothing wrong and you still see that it keeps happening, you let this person be and move on with your own life.
For goodness' sake, don't over-apologize and kiss ass. That doesn't make the other person forgive you more easily! It just makes them think that they can accuse and abuse you for little or no reason and you'll still apologize, so it will make it happen again in the future! If you really know you did something wrong, then you apologize. Otherwise, just stay away.
On the other hand, there's no need to become radical, like ignoring them and blocking their accounts. You just start becoming more and more distant. If you block them, it might have unwanted side effects, such as "Why did you block me? What did I ever do to you? I'm OFFENDED!" - Just be quiet and gentle instead.
I'll share something that happened to me several years ago. There was this person that I knew from an online community. He'd often find himself involved in fights at the forum and really act up. However, when you approached him about this, he'd always have his own reasons about why he's right and the other person is wrong, and it was impossible to convince him otherwise. At some point, I decided to have a closer cooperation with him, knowing I had to be careful to not get involved into fights. I still was aware of one fact: If I find myself involved in a fight, and if, after extremely careful examination, I still find that I've done nothing wrong, I don't care. There were one or two times where he started an one-sided fight with me, escalated it one-sidedly, decided to not talk to me, then came back on his own accord - I simply kept my calm and didn't care. Eventually that project died and I only kept a loose contact with him, Facebook-friends-only-exchanging-wishes level. Last year I eventually lost my Facebook account and it took me several months to create a new one. I reluctantly added him back, and suddenly I saw how happy he was to chat with me again, and we had a lengthy and very pleasant conversation. Maybe my emotional stability was keeping his mood swings steady and eventually made him think that he could count on me. In any case, it was a big lesson for me, and I'm glad things turned out this way now - as far as I know, he's not in touch with any other former members of that dead project.
EDIT: @Aurora3500 You never fully realize how entitled some drivers can feel until you start cycling on "their" road. I've seen all kinds of crazy behavior, from overtaking me and stopping 5 meters ahead of me, to being knocked off my bike because a door opened on me. Not that all cyclists are saints either. A few days ago, I was in the car, and two cyclists crossed the red light and stayed in the middle of the road (right in front of my car!) waiting for a gap so they could cross.
And I almost forgot my own rant. I woke up this morning feeling slightly ill (just enough to annoy me, nothing serious). I turned on my desktop computer, but the screen said "no HDMI signal". I tried accessing it remotely from my laptop, it wouldn't connect to the network. I tried my mum's laptop, it was also frozen. Okay, that's definitely fishy - I rebooted the router, accessed the computer remotely, but the work I was looking for was not there. I found it back about an hour later with external help, and it was at a simple place too! Note to self: don't use "git stash" right before a holiday, don't leave significant work in unpushed commits, git branches are soooo cheap.
Bought a new basic android mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy J1 SM-J100Y) without confirming SIM card size - my old phone takes a mini-SIM, this one takes a micro-SIM. I could have had it sorted out while I was at the shopping centre but didn't realise until after I was home and the shops were closed, so I'll have to make another trip tomorrow.
Bought a new basic android mobile phone (Samsung Galaxy J1 SM-J100Y) without confirming SIM card size - my old phone takes a mini-SIM, this one takes a micro-SIM. I could have had it sorted out while I was at the shopping centre but didn't realise until after I was home and the shops were closed, so I'll have to make another trip tomorrow.
Some SIM cards are like a tiny microchip with a teensy bit of cardboard, the cardboard is breakable which makes the sim adjustable. So maybe with a bit of finessing it may fit but i'm not too sure
@LacrimosaRaven - apparently, since I'm with Telstra, a Telstra shop can clip a mini-SIM down to micro-SIM size and also provide a holder so that it can still be used in a mini-SIM slot.
So a few things. I am unsure of going to the hockey game today, I don't want my neck/shoulder/side to be a problem. It's hard to ride long distances in the car, even in the front seat. I've tried different things, like putting a pillow behind me or shifting and doing a side stretch. I wish I could ride longer and have it not be a problem. But until I strengthen it, it will be. I know it takes time for anything to start to work. And my mom is continuing to push yoga on me, so I might start that. I don't know, i guess I was hoping that it would be better by now. It is somewhat but my neck still flared up this morning. And nights are worse which is when the game is.
Another thing, just because it's nicer out doesn't mean that motorcycles can be out, driving around and around our block 50 million times. (Which I don't understand. Doesn't that waste gas? And if you want to drive it, why not drive it around town or somewhere where it doesn't bother anyone? Sheesh) Also people are blasting their bass again. Another thing I don't understand. I don't know how people drive like that. It was so bad it seemed to shake the entire house. Ugh.
Also I had a bad heat rash after I took a shower last night. I think it was from the pool yesterday and the shower combined. I like hot showers though, so yeah. But I still itch today. I have some cream that helps but it smells like sun screen which I don't like. Also still with this migraine. Okay I think I am done for now.
Third Night this week having neck pain. I've been trying to set my pillows to be in a better position which doesn't seem to be working, though I'm sure sleeping on your side doesn't help, it is the only position I've ever been able to sleep in.
And in that Night I felt your pain @aki in being unable to sleep past 2am last night. It looks like Spring is coming temperature-wise since I always have more trouble sleeping when it is a warm temperature.
On another note; Seeing people say they "hate all Visual Novels" is upsetting to see. While it is fine for people to not like certain entertainment mediums if they've tried them, when it is based off of hearing about a few bad Visual Novels and not even giving any Visual Novels a chance, it just seems insulting. In the similar ways that some people hate on all Anime or Video Games who have never tried them.
^I like the SAO visual novels. I haven't finished the 1st one, but it draws you in more with more details than the anime does. (Still like the anime though.) Also have a Spice and Wolf one, but haven't read it either due to new books popping up. Ugh, wish I had more time to read.
@Seasonreaper I would want to be there for the concert, but I wouldn't want to get the vaccine for the viruses that are over there. I do not like needles at all.